In appreciation for her commitment to the study of women’s literature, Wayne State University is pleased to announce the JUDITH SIEGEL PEARSON AWARD. The award is an annual prize for the best creative or scholarly work on a subject concerning women. (At the discretion of the final judge, several awards may be given.) Judges over the past several years have been Maureen Owen, Barbara Einzig, Bhanu Kapil, Simone Chess, Joyce Jenkins, Aricka Foreman, Chris Tysh, and Natalie Bakopoulos.
Judith Siegel Pearson was born in Detroit, educated at Wayne State University, where she received her B.A. (1966) and M.A. (1968), Phi Beta Kappa. She went on to receive her Ph. D. from Washington University (Missouri) and taught at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. There she became one of the first English instructors to include Women’s Studies methods in her classes. She worked at the St. Louis Museum of Art and was on the public relations staff at UMSL when she died suddenly in November, 1979, of leukemia. She is survived by her son, Nathaniel. The Siegel family honors her memory with this award.
RULES FOR SUBMISSION
Welcome in their respective years are unpublished fiction, drama, poetry or non-fiction. Subjects must concern women. Submissions are open to all interested writers and scholars. The following schedule of awards will be observed.
- 2025 Poetry
- 2026 Non-Fiction
- 2027 Fiction
- 2028 Drama
Submissions should be anonymous with the author’s name and address entered separately in the form provided. Be sure to remove your name from any manuscript you upload. Each manuscript submitted should be clearly typed, double-spaced, and proofread carefully. PDFs are preferred. Contestants retain copyright of all work submitted. No work that has previously won a writing award conferred by Wayne State University may be resubmitted for this award.
Deadline for Submission is Wednesday, March 1, 2025 (must be received by midnight, Eastern Standard Time). Award to be announced in April. No late submissions will be accepted. WSU students may submit the same work for multiple awards.
Contributions to the Judith Siegel Pearson Fund may be made to the Department of English, Wayne State University, Attn.: Royanne Smith, 5057 Woodward Ave, Ste. 9408, Detroit, MI 48202.
The Creative Writing Awards Committee has authorized the following regulations in the competition for the Philip Lawson Hatch, Jr. Award.
PURPOSE
“Ethnicity” has been a particular significant element in the development of the Detroit metropolitan area. The city and its environs boomed relatively late in American history and consequently, many still extant communities maintain their ties to the worlds of their parents and grandparents. Massive immigration from Eastern Europe, from both East and South Asia, from the Middle East, from Mexico and elsewhere in the Americas, along with the movement of African-Americans from the American South to the area have made the region extraordinarily diverse in vision and experience.
The Phillip Lawson Hatch, Jr. Memorial Writing Competition is established to recognize achievement and to encourage continued progress in the expression and investigation of these ethnicities. The donor, Ms. Nigelle Hatch, wishes to fund within the Department of English annual prizes to be awarded to students for the best creative expressions of ethnic experience.
LITERARY STANDARDS
No prescription as to form or matter of the competing works is intended or implied. Creative imagination, intellectual integrity, and grasp of literary form are of equal importance.
ELIGIBILITY
Open to all full-time undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Wayne State University in either the Fall 2024 or Winter 2025 semesters, and to writers working in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and dramatic writing. The work submitted for the competition should, broadly speaking, concern the ethnic experience. Applicants for the prize may be of any ethnic or racial group. A contestant may enter only one work in each of the types (fiction, poetry, drama), except that a collection of poems may be used as a single entry in verse. Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama entries are not to exceed 30 pages, double-spaced. Poetry entries may include between one (1) and five (5) poems but should not exceed 10 pages.
Contestants may submit the same work, or portions of the same work, for multiple writing awards during this year's competition. Work awarded an Honorable Mention in a previous year may be submitted anew for the same award, or for a different one. No work that has already won a first or second place award in a previous year may be resubmitted for this year's competition in any category. Rare exceptions may occur: If a single poem that previously won a Hatch Award, for instance, now appears reimagined as part of a longer poetic sequence, the poet might submit the new, longer poetic sequence. (If in doubt, you can always submit, and any submissions deemed too similar to a previous award-winning entry will be disqualified.)
SPECIFIC REGULATIONS
Submission of manuscripts must be received by March 1, 2025, midnight, Eastern Standard Time, to meet established deadline. No late submissions will be accepted. Any contestant who, before the decision is announced, identifies himself to any judge will be disqualified.
Applicants will be preliminarily judged by a jury composed of established writers who have published at least one book with a reputable press or of members of the faculty of the English Department and in accordance with the general policies and practices of the University.
Awards will be announced publicly in April.
OWNERSHIP
The entry of a work in the competition does not affect ownership of copyright or permission to publish. Works may be submitted that are also being considered by journal or book editors. No work is eligible for submission, however, if at the time of entry it has won an award or if it has been published or accepted for publication. Competitors are urged to retain copies of their works, for while due care is exercised no reparation is possible in case of accident, loss or destruction. The entry of a manuscript in this contest will constitute a binding acceptance of the rules by the competitor.
FORM OF TYPESCRIPT
Each entry must be clearly typed, double spaced, in a 12 point font, and proofread as carefully as possible for publication. Manuscripts will be disqualified for careless proofreading. Pages must be numbered consecutively. Winning manuscripts are kept on file. The non-winning entries are disposed of. This policy helps to guard against the possibility of entries being plagiarized.
Although a variety of file types (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf) will be accepted, PDFs are preferred.
The maximum page length for a submission in any genre is thirty (30) pages (again: double-spaced, in a 12 point font). This can be a chapter, short story, single poem, collection of poems, or a scene or act from a play.
PLAN OF ANONYMITY
Each manuscript must be anonymous. Remove your name and any identifying information from the file you upload. You will be asked to enter your name and contact information on the form provided, but judges will not have access to your names until after they have delivered their verdicts.
PROCEDURE
Representatives of the Creative Writing Awards Committee will inspect all typescripts for adherence to form and withdraw those that do not comply with these regulations. They will also check authors for eligibility.
The final judges will make their decisions without knowing any authors and certify these decisions to the Committee. The Committee will identify the authors of the winning entries.
The Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid will disburse the awards according to regular University policies.
PURPOSE
To encourage the writing of poetry among students at Wayne State University, the JOHN CLARE PRIZE, named for the 19th century English poet, is an award established at Wayne State University by the Academy of American Poets in New York. Every five years, the Academy publishes an anthology of selected prize-winning poems, edited by a prominent American poet. The award of $100 annually has been made possible by the Nancy and Michael Becker Fund.
ELIGIBILITY
Any student registered at Wayne State University for any class for credit during either the Fall Semester 2024 or the Winter Semester 2025 may compete. A contestant may enter one poem or as many as five poems. Poetry entries are not to exceed ten pages.
Contestants may submit the same work, or portions of the same work, for multiple writing awards during this year's competition. Work awarded an Honorable Mention in a previous year may be submitted anew for the same award, or for a different one. No work that has already won a first or second place award in a previous year may be resubmitted for this year's competition in any category. Rare exceptions may occur: If a single poem that previously won a Hatch Award, for instance, now appears reimagined as part of a longer poetic sequence, the poet might submit the new, longer poetic sequence. (If in doubt, you can always submit, and any submissions deemed too similar to a previous award-winning entry will be disqualified.)
SPECIFIC REGULATIONS
Submission of manuscripts must be received by March 1, 2025, midnight, Eastern Standard Time, to meet established deadline. No late submissions will be accepted. Any contestant who, before the decision is announced, identifies himself to any judge will be disqualified.
Applicants will be preliminarily judged by a jury composed of established writers who have published at least one book with a reputable press or of members of the faculty of the English Department and in accordance with the general policies and practices of the University.
Awards will be announced publicly in April.
OWNERSHIP
The entry of a work in the competition does not affect ownership of copyright or permission to publish. Works may be submitted that are also being considered by journal or book editors. No work is eligible for submission, however, if at the time of entry it has won an award or if it has been published or accepted for publication. Competitors are urged to retain copies of their works, for while due care is exercised no reparation is possible in case of accident, loss or destruction. The entry of a manuscript in this contest will constitute a binding acceptance of the rules by the competitor.
FORM OF TYPESCRIPT
Each entry must be clearly typed in a 12 point font, and proofread as carefully as possible for publication. Manuscripts will be disqualified for careless proofreading. Pages must be numbered consecutively. Winning manuscripts are kept on file. The non-winning entries are disposed of. This policy helps to guard against the possibility of entries being plagiarized.
Although a variety of file types (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf) will be accepted, PDFs are preferred.
The maximum page length for a submission is ten pages, the maximum number of poems you may submit is five.
PLAN OF ANONYMITY
Each manuscript must be anonymous. Remove your name and any identifying information from the file you upload. You will be asked to enter your name and contact information on the form provided, but judges will not have access to your names until after they have delivered their verdicts.
PROCEDURE
Representatives of the Creative Writing Awards Committee will inspect all typescripts for adherence to form and withdraw those that do not comply with these regulations. They will also check authors for eligibility.
The final judges will make their decisions without knowing any authors and certify these decisions to the Committee. The Committee will identify the authors of the winning entries.
The Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid will disburse the awards according to regular University policies.
PURPOSE
To encourage creative writing among Wayne State University students, the TOMPKINS AWARDS are made an annual feature of the student activity program.
LITERARY STANDARDS
No prescription as to form or matter of the competing works is intended or implied. Creative imagination, intellectual integrity, and grasp of literary form are of equal importance. Note, however, that for this particular Tompkins Award, the awards committee encourages submissions of "creative nonfiction," which may be scholarly but tends to be written for a general audience rather than exclusively for members of a particular academic discipline. "Creative Nonfiction" encompasses the genres of personal essay, narrative essay, literary journalism, lyric essay, and memoir, among others.
ELIGIBILITY
Any student registered at Wayne State University for any class for credit during either the Fall Semester 2024 or Winter Semester 2025 may compete. A contestant may enter only one work in each of the four genres for which Tompkins Awards are given out (Drama, Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction), except that a collection of poems may be used as a single entry. For the Nonfiction award the maximum manuscript length is 30 pages, double-spaced. You may submit a single essay or several short ones so long as you do not exceed the page limit.
Contestants may submit the same work, or portions of the same work, for multiple writing awards during this year's competition. Work awarded an Honorable Mention in a previous year may be submitted anew for the same award, or for a different one. No work that has already won a first or second place award in a previous year may be resubmitted for this year's competition in any category. Rare exceptions may occur: If a single poem that previously won a Hatch Award, for instance, now appears reimagined as part of a longer poetic sequence, the poet might submit the new, longer poetic sequence. (If in doubt, you can always submit, and any submissions deemed too similar to a previous award-winning entry will be disqualified.)
SPECIFIC REGULATIONS
Submission of manuscripts must be received by March 1, 2025, midnight, Eastern Standard Time, to meet established deadline. No late submissions will be accepted. Any contestant who, before the decision is announced, identifies himself to any judge will be disqualified.
Applicants will be preliminarily judged by a jury composed of established writers who have published at least one book with a reputable press or of members of the faculty of the English Department and in accordance with the general policies and practices of the University.
Awards will be announced publicly in April.
OWNERSHIP
The entry of a work in the competition does not affect ownership of copyright or permission to publish. Works may be submitted that are also being considered by journal or book editors. No work is eligible for submission, however, if at the time of entry it has won an award or if it has been published or accepted for publication. Competitors are urged to retain copies of their works, for while due care is exercised no reparation is possible in case of accident, loss or destruction. The entry of a manuscript in this contest will constitute a binding acceptance of the rules by the competitor.
FORM OF TYPESCRIPT
Each entry must be clearly typed in a 12 point font, double-spaced, and proofread as carefully as possible for publication. Manuscripts will be disqualified for careless proofreading. Pages must be numbered consecutively. Winning manuscripts are kept on file. The non-winning entries are disposed of. This policy helps to guard against the possibility of entries being plagiarized.
Although a variety of file types (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf) will be accepted, PDFs are preferred.
Again: the maximum page length for a submission is thirty pages.
PLAN OF ANONYMITY
Each manuscript must be anonymous. Remove your name and any identifying information from the file you upload. You will be asked to enter your name and contact information on the form provided, but judges will not have access to your names until after they have delivered their verdicts.
PROCEDURE
Representatives of the Creative Writing Awards Committee will inspect all typescripts for adherence to form and withdraw those that do not comply with these regulations. They will also check authors for eligibility.
The final judges will make their decisions without knowing any authors and certify these decisions to the Committee. The Committee will identify the authors of the winning entries.
The Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid will disburse the awards according to regular University policies.
PURPOSE
To encourage creative writing among Wayne State University students, the TOMPKINS AWARDS are made an annual feature of the student activity program.
LITERARY STANDARDS
No prescription as to form or matter of the competing works is intended or implied. Creative imagination, intellectual integrity, and grasp of literary form are of equal importance.
ELIGIBILITY
Any student registered at Wayne State University for any class for credit during either the Fall Semester 2024 or Winter Semester 2025 may compete. A contestant may enter only one work in each of the four genres for which Tompkins Awards are given out (Drama, Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction), except that a collection of poems may be used as a single entry. For the Fiction award the maximum manuscript length is 30 pages, double-spaced.
Contestants may submit the same work, or portions of the same work, for multiple writing awards during this year's competition. Work awarded an Honorable Mention in a previous year may be submitted anew for the same award, or for a different one. No work that has already won a first or second place award in a previous year may be resubmitted for this year's competition in any category. Rare exceptions may occur: If a single poem that previously won a Hatch Award, for instance, now appears reimagined as part of a longer poetic sequence, the poet might submit the new, longer poetic sequence. (If in doubt, you can always submit, and any submissions deemed too similar to a previous award-winning entry will be disqualified.)
SPECIFIC REGULATIONS
Submission of manuscripts must be received by March 1, 2025, midnight, Eastern Standard Time, to meet established deadline. No late submissions will be accepted. Any contestant who, before the decision is announced, identifies himself to any judge will be disqualified.
Applicants will be preliminarily judged by a jury composed of established writers who have published at least one book with a reputable press or of members of the faculty of the English Department and in accordance with the general policies and practices of the University.
Awards will be announced publicly in April and presented at a scholarship and award ceremony, time and place to be announced.
OWNERSHIP
The entry of a work in the competition does not affect ownership of copyright or permission to publish. Works may be submitted that are also being considered by journal or book editors. No work is eligible for submission, however, if at the time of entry it has won an award or if it has been published or accepted for publication. Competitors are urged to retain copies of their works, for while due care is exercised no reparation is possible in case of accident, loss or destruction. The entry of a manuscript in this contest will constitute a binding acceptance of the rules by the competitor.
FORM OF TYPESCRIPT
Each entry must be clearly typed in a 12 point font, double-spaced, and proofread as carefully as possible for publication. Manuscripts will be disqualified for careless proofreading. Pages must be numbered consecutively. Winning manuscripts are kept on file. The non-winning entries are disposed of. This policy helps to guard against the possibility of entries being plagiarized.
Although a variety of file types (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf) will be accepted, PDFs are preferred.
Again: the maximum page length for a submission is thirty pages.
PLAN OF ANONYMITY
Each manuscript must be anonymous. Remove your name and any identifying information from the file you upload. You will be asked to enter your name and contact information on the form provided, but judges will not have access to authors' names until after they have delivered their verdicts.
PROCEDURE
Representatives of the Creative Writing Awards Committee will inspect all typescripts for adherence to form and withdraw those that do not comply with these regulations. They will also check authors for eligibility.
The final judges will make their decisions without knowing any authors and certify these decisions to the Committee. The Committee will identify the authors of the winning entries.
The Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid will disburse the awards according to regular University policies.
PURPOSE
To encourage creative writing among Wayne State University students, the TOMPKINS AWARDS are made an annual feature of the student activity program.
LITERARY STANDARDS
No prescription as to form or matter of the competing works is intended or implied. Creative imagination, intellectual integrity, and grasp of literary form are of equal importance.
ELIGIBILITY
Any student registered at Wayne State University for any class for credit during either the Fall Semester 2024 or Winter Semester 2025 may compete. A contestant may enter only one work in each of the four genres for which Tompkins Awards are given out (Drama, Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction), except that a collection of poems may be used as a single entry. For the Poetry award the maximum manuscript length is 10 pages. You may submit a single poem or as many as, but no more than, five, so long as you do not exceed the page limit.
Contestants may submit the same work, or portions of the same work, for multiple writing awards during this year's competition. Work awarded an Honorable Mention in a previous year may be submitted anew for the same award, or for a different one. No work that has already won a first or second place award in a previous year may be resubmitted for this year's competition in any category. Rare exceptions may occur: If a single poem that previously won a Hatch Award, for instance, now appears reimagined as part of a longer poetic sequence, the poet might submit the new, longer poetic sequence. (If in doubt, you can always submit, and any submissions deemed too similar to a previous award-winning entry will be disqualified.)
SPECIFIC REGULATIONS
Submission of manuscripts must be received by March 1, 2025, midnight, Eastern Standard Time, to meet established deadline. No late submissions will be accepted. Any contestant who, before the decision is announced, identifies himself to any judge will be disqualified.
Applicants will be preliminarily judged by a jury composed of members of the faculty of the English Department and in accordance with the general policies and practices of the University.
Awards will be announced publicly in April and presented at a scholarship and award ceremony, time and place to be announced.
OWNERSHIP
The entry of a work in the competition does not affect ownership of copyright or permission to publish. Works may be submitted that are also being considered by journal or book editors. No work is eligible for submission, however, if at the time of entry it has won an award or if it has been published or accepted for publication. Competitors are urged to retain copies of their works, for while due care is exercised no reparation is possible in case of accident, loss or destruction. The entry of a manuscript in this contest will constitute a binding acceptance of the rules by the competitor.
FORM OF TYPESCRIPT
Each entry must be clearly typed in a 12 point font, double-spaced, and proofread as carefully as possible for publication. Manuscripts will be disqualified for careless proofreading. Pages must be numbered consecutively. Winning manuscripts are kept on file. The non-winning entries are disposed of. This policy helps to guard against the possibility of entries being plagiarized.
Although a variety of file types (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf) will be accepted, PDFs are preferred.
Again: the maximum page length for a submission is thirty pages.
PLAN OF ANONYMITY
Each manuscript must be anonymous. Remove your name and any identifying information from the file you upload. You will be asked to enter your name and contact information on the form provided, but judges will not have access to authors' names until after they have delivered their verdicts.
PROCEDURE
Representatives of the Creative Writing Awards Committee will inspect all typescripts for adherence to form and withdraw those that do not comply with these regulations. They will also check authors for eligibility.
The final judges will make their decisions without knowing any authors and certify these decisions to the Committee. The Committee will identify the authors of the winning entries.
The Office of Scholarship and Financial Aid will disburse the awards according to regular University policies.